Overview
- A Los Angeles jury on Wednesday found Meta and Google’s YouTube negligent for platform design that harmed a child, awarding $3 million and assigning 70% of fault to Meta and 30% to YouTube after also finding malice that moves the case into a punitive-damages phase.
- Jurors accepted a product-design theory that targets features like infinite scroll, autoplay, notifications, recommendation engines, and beauty filters rather than user content shielded by Section 230.
- The companies said teen mental health has many causes and pointed to safety tools, while the plaintiff, now 20, testified she began using YouTube at age 6 and Instagram at 9 and was on social media all day as a child.
- This bellwether trial is expected to guide outcomes for more than 1,600 related cases, after TikTok and Snap settled before trial and following testimony from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram chief Adam Mosseri.
- The ruling follows Tuesday’s New Mexico jury decision ordering Meta to pay $375 million under state consumer law and could drive appeals, product design changes, and new rules on kids’ access and age checks.